When do we stop beating a dead horse?

O’Fallon Township High School conducted an emergency meeting about their budget issues, blaming the state for their woes. The state has been under budget chaos for at least the last decade, so why did our elected officials not see this coming so as to prevent such emergency? The school board decided to cut $610,000 from the budget next year, which matches up pretty close to the $600,000 loss due to disabled veterans property tax exemptions identified by the superintendent in an article published by the BND on Dec. 8, 2016.

So did our disabled veterans taking advantage of a benefit afforded to them cause this emergency? One might ask why other school districts haven’t engaged in such tactics? Our local veterans (especially those with a disability status) provide a far more positive impact to our community than $600,000 identified by a single school district. We are supposed to be led to believe we must take action with the state to correct, but how often does anything positive for southern Illinois come out of Springfield? When do we stop beating a dead horse?

News flash: O’Fallon Township High School employs two superintendents, seven principals, and other administrative management staff at a cost to the taxpayer of over $1.5 million annually! There are two campuses that make up OTHS; why does it take seven principals to run two schools? Let’s tighten our own belts first before asking others to bloat our bellies from a bank that is empty.